New hobbies

Staying home a year got me doing a couple things out of A) boredom - (LOVE my babies but really missed "adult" interaction/activities), B) husband's constant rant over $$$ or lack thereof, and of course C) desire to try new things.

So I took up gardening, couponing and canning. I figured they would save me money to satisfy Buddy's rants. I must have been a farmer in a past life because the draw I have to my chickens and other self-sufficiency things like canning and gardening.

Buddy constructed a raised-bed garden for Mother's Day. We enjoyed lettuce, carrots, zucchini, squash, cucumbers, snap peas, eggplants, tomatoes and green chilies through June. The heat got most of the garden then and grubs got both my squash :( We still have eggplants and chilies producing but it's too hot for the cucumber to set fruit. We will replant frost resistant stuff in September and then the whole thing again in February.

What is "left" this summer.

I tried canning after a friend got a pickling lesson from her mom. We went to Willcox for the peach and corn festival and brought pack pickling cucs and peaches. While the pickles canned fine, I ran into trouble with the peaches and seeping. I did manage to make a lot of good peach butter and some "pickled peaches"!

Pickles, pickled peaches and peach butter.

As for couponing, I've seen news stories on websites that can "save you 1/2 off your grocery bill!"... I looked up one of the FREE websites and started reading. I was a believer 30 minutes later! While it took a month to understand the tricks and tips (I'm STILL learning A LOT), it reduced my monthly bill by $100-150! The longer I do it the better I get, so I should be able to halve my grocery bill in a few months. It would be impressive to comfortably feed a family of 4 on $200/month and have a fully stocked freezer and pantry!

My CRAZY coupon binder, I need to buy more pages!

I hope I can keep up with these "hobbies" now that I've returned to work. One of the nicest things about my hobbies has been sharing with friends. I've shared a lot of eggs, cucumbers, eggplant, squash, lettuce, peach butter and diaper coupons with friends and neighbors. It is awesome to hand a coupon that you're not going to use to a stranger at the store, their face lights up! Good karma!